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December 19, 2012

Def Min approves proposal for 22 Cheetal helicopters

The Defence Ministry
Tuesday approved a proposal to procure around 22 Cheetal helicopters for
Army, which is likely to deploy these choppers for supporting its high
altitude operations in Ladakh and Siachen.

A meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the apex Ministry
body headed by Defence Minister A K Antony to decide on procurements,
cleared the proposal to procure around 22 Cheetal choppers for Army,
Defence Ministry officials said.

The Cheetals are an upgraded version of the vintage Cheetahs with more
powerful engines manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

These choppers are being procured as there is a delay in the
acquisition of new Light Utility Helicopters (LUHs) for replacing the
Cheetah/Chetak fleet of IAF and Army due to cancellation of procurement
procedures in the recent past, they said.Army has some of its
squadrons of Cheetah/Chetak choppers deployed in Siachen base camp and
around Leh in Jammu and Kashmir to support its troops deployed at and
along the world's highest battlefield there, the officials said.

The Defence Ministry is procuring 197 LUHs of which 133 would go to Army while the remaining would go to IAF.

European Eurocopter and Russian Kamov 226 Sergei are in the race
for supplying these new choppers but the Defence Ministry is yet to take
a final decision on starting commercial negotiations with the two
vendors.

The Navy has also issued a tender for procuring 56 choppers that will
replace its fleet of the vintage Cheetah/ Chetak helicopters.